Easy Christmas Wooden Ornament Crafts

Use a wooden spool to make a Christmas ornament.

Make easy Christmas ornaments with basic wooden shapes found in most craft stores or hardware stores. Use circles of wood, craft sticks or spools to make these ornaments. They are suitable for kids or adults to create. (Supervise the use of a hot glue gun with children.) Embellish the ornaments with craft supplies or recycled items.

Circles

Cut or buy circular shapes made out of thin wood. Decorate each circle to look like a regular spherical Christmas ornament. Paint the wood with metallic paint or cover it with aluminum foil glued in place. Draw zigzag lines, poinsettias, bells or other designs on the ornament with glitter pens or use an applicator tip on white craft glue and draw the design on the wood. Sprinkle glitter on the wet glue and shake the excess off. Make a round photo ornament by cutting a photo to fit the ornament. (Use the piece of wood as the pattern to trace on the photo to cut it to the proper size and shape.) Trim the wood edge with fabric ribbon or paint. Add a second photo on the back of the wood circle or cover it with paint or fabric.

Snowflakes

Use three regular or notched craft sticks to make snowflake ornaments. Hot glue two together by setting one across the other to form an X. Glue the top one to the bottom where the two pieces meet to form the X. Add the third stick on top of the first two to form the other two sides of a snowflake so the snowflake has six sides. Paint the sticks white with acrylic craft paint or leave the wood natural and add glitter with white craft glue. Instead of paint or glitter, use recycled items to decorate the snowflakes, such as white packing popcorn or small pieces of ripped or cut white paper from envelopes.

Wooden Spools

Use recycled wooden spools saved from sewing thread or buy new spools from a craft supply store. (The craft stores carry different sizes of spools, including miniature sizes.) Cover the middle of the spools where the thread would be with bits of Christmas colored or themed fabrics, glued in place. Decorate the edges of the spool with paint, glitter, sequins or use items from the kitchen such as dried noodles, beans or rice. Make little character dolls out of the spools. Paint a face on the body of the spool. Add yarn or craft doll hair. For an angel add a halo made of wire or pipe cleaner on the top. Add a felt or fabric hat to a Santa or elf spool head.

References

• Martha Stewart: Making Wooden Ornaments